Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals and health systems are dealing with lower operating margins, higher employee turnover, and significant changes in patient volumes.
Over the past year, some organizations have made progress in these areas and are beginning to engage in more strategic discussions to further address them.
During an executive roundtable sponsored by ECG Management Consultants at Becker's 12th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, Mark Johnston, partner, and David Willis, principal on the strategy and planning team at ECG Management Consultants, led a discussion about the current healthcare landscape and how hospitals and health systems can differentiate themselves.
Three key takeaways were:
- Market player or market maker?
According to Mr. Willis market players concentrate on operational issues, such as optimizing cost structures to achieve a sustainable margin, winning high-growth service lines through network redesign, securing premium pricing, and enhancing physician alignment and integration.
In contrast, market makers focus on new channels and markets, integrating innovation and change management into core competencies, exploring brand expansion and redefinition, and emphasizing cost transformation.
- The future is ambulatory and goes beyond ASCs
Factors that could accelerate the transition to ambulatory care include patient preferences, payer models and reimbursement, physician behavior, and the amount of capital physicians have to adopt a more entrepreneurial model.
- Less inpatient care leads to emerging new markets and channels
As care transitions closer to the patient's home, hospitals and health systems face increasing challenges in execution and excellence. Participants noted the direct-to-consumer trend as competition shifts to companies like Hims & Hers, Calm, Amazon, and others.
"I think there are some really interesting partnership opportunities that new players in the market are open to that haven't been fully explored by the vast majority of regional health systems," Mr. Johnston said.